Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, presented NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in the NASA hanger at Ellington Field, 10/22/09. Walker will take the watch International Space Station in the spring of 2010. less

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, presented NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in the ... more

Photo: Kim Christensen, For The Chronicle

Image 9 of 13

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, right presents NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in the NASA hanger at Ellington Field, 10/22/09. Walker will take the watch International Space Station in the spring of 2010. less

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, right presents NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in ... more

Photo: Kim Christensen, For The Chronicle

Image 10 of 13

Image 11 of 13

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, right presents NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in the NASA hanger at Ellington Field, 10/22/09. Walker will take the watch International Space Station in the spring of 2010. less

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, right presents NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in ... more

Photo: Kim Christensen, For The Chronicle

Image 12 of 13

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, presented NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in the NASA hanger at Ellington Field, 10/22/09. Walker will take the watch International Space Station in the spring of 2010. less

Joan Kerwin, with the 99th International Organization of Women Pilots, presented NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker the watch Amelia Earhart's watch that was worn by Earhart on her two transatlantic flights, in the ... more

Photo: Kim Christensen, For The Chronicle

Image 13 of 13

Lightsabers and dino bones: Weirdest stuff ever launched into space

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Soda cans retrofitted for pouring in microgravity, a baby dinosaur bone and human ashes are among the strange things that have traveled into space aboard U.S. space shuttles.

Cans of Coca Cola and Pepsi were on the same July 1985 flight, STS-51F, according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website. Coke started the idea, and then Pepsi jumped onboard, the website stated.

Specially modified cans of both cola brands were on the shuttle, with their own line item in the schedule: Carbonated beverage container evaluation, according to a 45-page press kit.

The baby dinosaur bone, the first to fly in space, was on the same Challenger flight as the soda cans, which launched July 29, 1985.

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Payload Specialist Loren Acton carried the petrified bone of a baby Maiasaura Peeblesorum as well as an egg shell piece of the same species, Jennifer Ross-Nazzal of the NASA Johnson Space Center History Office said Monday. These artifacts are now at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont.

More recently, on a June 2010 flight of a Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft, U.S. astronaut Shannon Walker wore a watch that belonged to Amelia Earhart, according to The Richest.com. Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, disappeared in July 1937 over the Pacific.

Other odd items that have flown into space include:

A metal cargo tag from the Jamestown Colony (flown in 2007 in honor of early American explorers)

Three NASCAR starter flags on the Atlantis STS-122 mission in February, 2008

New York Mets' home plate, flown on Atlantis STS-125, May, 2009

Buzz Lightyear, the toy space ranger, on two shuttle missions: Going into space on Discovery STS-124 in May, 2008, and returning to Earth on Discovery STS-128 in August, 2009

Three, 1.5-inch Lego figures aboard the Juno orbiter, which was launched in 2011 and is expected to arrive at the planet Jupiter in 2016

Five years later, more of Roddenberry's ashes were launched into space, along with those of 23 others. Celestis is planning its 13th "memorial" spaceflight in June from Spaceport America in New Mexico, according to its website.